Some features of Celtic Spirituality

Love of nature and a passion for the wild and elemental as a reminder of God's gift.

Love and respect for art and poetry.

Love and respect for the great stories and higher learning.

Sense of God and the saints as a continuing, personal, helpful presence.

Theologically orthodox, yet with heavy emphasis on the Trinity, and a love and respect for Miriam of Nazareth, the person of Jesus of Nazareth, known as the Christ, and liturgy.

Thin boundaries between the sacred and the secular.

Unique Church structure: there were originally no towns, just nomadic settlements, hence the church was more monastic rather than diocesan, resulting in quite independent rules and liturgies.

Ireland was very isolated; it was hard to impose outside central Roman authority.

Influenced much by middle-eastern and Coptic monasticism.

Monasteries were often huge theocratic villages often associated with a clan with the same kinship ties, along with slaves, freemen, celibate monks, married clergy, professed lay people, men and women living side by side.

While some monasteries were in isolated places, many more were at the crossroads of provincial territories.

Women had more equal footing in ancient Irish law, thus had more equal say in church governance.

Developed the idea of having a "soul friend" (anamchara) to help in spiritual direction.

Invented personal confession.

Oral word-based culture; most of the people were illiterate but had great memorization skills. They loved to hear great stories.

A sense of closeness and immanence between the natural and supernatural.

A mandate for hospitality.

Emphasis on family and kinship ties.

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